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Mortal Engines Wiki:Manual of Style
The Manual of Style '''(often abbreviated as '''Mos '''or '''MOS) is a style guide for all Mortal Engines Wiki articles, images and other wiki-related subjects. It helps editors produce consistent articles and keeps the Mortal Engines Wiki consistent in layout and style. Consistency in style and formatting promotes clarity and cohesion; this is especially important within an article. Orthography Spelling British spelling should be used on all canon encyclopedia articles on the , on any template transcribed on articles, on transcripts and on all official projects and blog posts. This is to reflect the British origin of Mortal Engines. There are the following exceptions: * Regional variations in spelling may be used in all other contexts on the , such as comments, talk pages, user pages and blog posts. * If quoting a source, never alter any part of the quotation, even if it does not use British spelling. Punctuation *'Use double quotation marks for quotes', use single quotation marks for quotes within quotes e.g. *'Place punctuation outside the brackets of a bracketed phrase' *'If a sentence or sentences is entirely within brackets,' their punctuation also lies within brackets. Capitalisation *'The definite article "the" should generally not be capitalised' with a few exceptions according to common usage, such as the names of artistic works. e.g. Typography Italics *Use italics when referring to a ship or a book title e.g. Bold *Use bold to highlight the name of the article's object the first time it is mentioned. Grammar Possessives * For the possessive of singular nouns ending with just one s'', add just an apostrophe. * For a normal plural noun, ending with a pronounced ''s, form the possessive by adding just an apostrophe e.g. . Tense For in-universe articles: * Past tense must be used on any event articles, articles describing entities that are deceased or no longer exist, or sections of any in-universe article detailing past events (including plot/history sections) e.g. , not . * Present tense must be used on any location, creature, and character article, where this does not conflict with the first guideline. Current "in-universe time" on the is generally considered to be fixed at the end of the book or series furthest down the timeline in which the entity is mentioned. The exception is A Darkling Plain, where this is set at the beginning of the final chapter "Shrike in the World to Come". For real world articles: *'Present tense' should be used except in the case of a deceased person. Vocabulary Formal use of language is mandatory on all canon encyclopedia articles e.g. , not . Formality and neutrality * Uncontracted forms such as do not or it is are the default in encyclopedic style; don't and it's are too informal. * On encyclopedia articles, avoid such phrases as remember that and note that, which address readers directly in a less-than-encyclopedic tone. Similarly, phrases such as of course, naturally, obviously, clearly, and actually make presumptions about readers' knowledge, and call into question the reason for including the information in the first place. Do not tell readers that something is ironic, surprising, unexpected, amusing, coincidental, unfortunate, etc. This supplies a point of view. Simply state the sourced facts and allow readers to draw their own conclusions. * Do not speculate. Perspective Articles on are one of two types: * In-universe: Article should be written as if the world depicted in the Mortal Engines series were the real world. Entities should not be treated as fictional constructs. These articles include all character, location, flora and fauna, event etc. * Real world: Article should be written from "our" perspective. This includes all actor, book and film articles. Article titles, sections and headings Article titles An article title is a convenient label for the article, which distinguishes it from other articles. It need not be the name of the subject; many article titles are descriptions of the subject. *Where official sources differ on the name of a subject, UK book canon should be used. The following points are critical to formatting article titles: * Use "sentence case" or "sentence-style": The initial letter of a title is capitalised; otherwise, capital letters are used only where they would be used in a normal sentence e.g. , not . * Use the plural form: Article titles for general groups should be singular unless the plural is part of the name e.g. and , not and . * Use full names without ranks for characters: Articles about characters should avoid the title or rank, unless the character is known or can be distinguished only by the title e.g. , not . * Use parentheses to distinguish similar articles: e.g. or . *'Include the word "The" only when it is part of the name' e.g. and not and . Article headings * Headings should not normally contain links, especially where only part of a heading is linked. * Citations should not be placed within or on the same line as section and subsection headings. * Headings should not contain images. * Headings for similar types of articles should be consistent and follow the layout guidelines as shown below. * Headings should be used in order if needed. Images *Infobox images for in-universe articles should be high quality and either unobstructed movie stills, movie promotional material, or official illustrations where available. Links *Articles should be linked to their respective pages only in the first instance they appear.